Pre-readers are those children ages birth to three who are learning to speak words and sentences, learning early print concepts when being read to, singing the ABC song and nursery rhymes and scribbling. All of these are important when it comes to raising readers. As author Emilie Buchwald once said "children are made readers in the laps of their parents," so grab a book and take a few minutes to read a book to your child today!

Did you know a child's ability to identify letters is one of the best predictors of a child's future reading success? Letter learners are typically ages 3-5 and in preschool, early childhood or 4-year-old kindergarten. These children are learning letter names, letter sounds, how to write their name and other letters, identifying the first sound in words and clapping the syllables in words. 

Sounders and spellers are typically ages 5-7 and in Kindergarten or 1st Grade. These children know most letter names and sounds, are blending individual sounds to read words and segmenting sounds to read words.

Independent readers are generally ages 7 and up and in second grade and up. These children have basic decoding and spelling (phonics) skills, are reading and spelling multisyllabic words, learning morphology (prefixes, suffixes, root words) and reading independently to build sight words.